Hair Raising
by badly-knitted
Summary: Jack decides to go for a different look for his date with Ianto. Written for fic promptly.


**Title:** Hair Raising

**Author:** badly-knitted

**Characters:** Ianto, Jack, OCs.

**Rating:** G

**Spoilers:** Nada.

**Summary:** Jack decides to go for a different look for his date with Ianto.

**Word Count:** 789

**Written For: **My own prompt 'Any, Any, " 'You look like you've got a hedgehog on your head' is NOT a compliment!",' at fic_promptly.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.

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"Jack?" Ianto called, checking his watch for the umpteenth time. "Are you coming or not? If we don't leave soon we're going to be late!"

"Just give me a minute," Jack's voice drifted out to where Ianto stood frowning impatiently at the closed bathroom door. "I'm almost ready!"

"You said that half an hour ago," Ianto muttered under his breath. "If you don't hurry up, we're going to miss the start of the movie," he added in a louder voice.

"Hold your horses! You want me to look my best, don't you?"

Ianto rolled his eyes heavenwards; they were going to be sitting in a dark cinema!

Five more minutes passed before Jack finally emerged from the bathroom. "Ta da! What d'you think?"

It was easy to see what had taken Jack so long; his hair had been gelled to within an inch of its life, little spikes sticking up all over his head. Ianto stared at it in disbelief.

"You look like you've got a hedgehog on your head!"

Jack beamed back at him, delighted. "Thank you!"

"That wasn't compliment, Jack."

His face fell. "Oh."

"This is probably a stupid question, but why?"

"I don't know." Jack shrugged. "I was getting bored with having the same style all the time; I felt like a change and I thought this would be fun. Just took me a bit longer than I expected to get it exactly how I wanted it."

That was some small consolation to Ianto. Any style that took well over an hour of painstaking work to create was not likely to be worn very often.

Still, there was no point making a fuss about it. "Fine, let's go." Ianto passed Jack his coat and turned towards the door.

Jack hurried after him, pulling his coat on, pausing at the door to shove his feet into shoes. "You really don't like my hair?"

"I like your hair just fine, but I prefer it when you use less gel." Ianto didn't want to hurt Jack's feelings, but really, what was he thinking? Had he even thought at all or just acted on a sudden whim?

"You're always suggesting I wear something different when we go on a date," Jack muttered. "Then I do and you don't like it."

"I wasn't talking about hair product. I just thought some of your other clothes would appreciate getting worn now and then, since you wear the same outfit every day at work."

"I wear the same hair every day too. What's the harm in jazzing it up a bit?"

Ianto didn't have an answer to that, so he didn't reply, just led the way out the door and down to the car, Jack and his hair trailing forlornly behind him.

As he'd expected, by the time they'd parked the car and walked the rest of the way to the cinema, the movie had already started.

"There, hat did I tell you? We've missed the first fifteen minutes; not much point going in now, is there?"

"But I got all done up for our date!"

"Yes, to sit in the dark watching a movie for two hours where nobody would be able to see you."

Jack frowned. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Obviously. Ah well, we'll have to try this some other night. People would have probably had trouble seeing over your hair anyway."

"So now what? We just go home?"

"That would be a bit of a waste, wouldn't it? I mean we drove all the way into town." Ianto looked around for inspiration. "We could go to a club instead; dance, have a few drinks…" He was going to say 'let our hair down', but then thought better of it.

"I'm game if you are!" Jack said, brightening. "Let's go!"

Later that night, when they were taking a break from dancing to grab a much-needed drink, Ianto looked at Jack's hair again. It was still defiantly spiky, but in the club setting it didn't look as out of place as it had earlier.

"I think this must be your hair's natural habitat," he teased. "It seems right at home here."

He was proved right a few minutes later when another couple joined them at the bar.

"Cool hair!" one of them exclaimed. "How'd you get it to stick up like that?"

Ianto answered for Jack. "Time, patience, and a whole jar of hair gel," he said with a grin. "It's a good thing neither of us smoke; he's probably a fire hazard."

"I'm gonna try that next week. It's epic!"

"See?" Jack beamed triumphantly at his lover. "At least someone likes my hairstyle."

With a wry smile, Ianto admitted, "You know, I think maybe it's starting to grow on me."

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The End


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